Here is some news from the Seminary. Four young priests received the priestly unction from His Excellency Bishop Bernard Fellay on June 23rd. As the ordinations took place on a Friday, fifty-nine priests were able to attend the ceremony and have the joy of imposing hands on the newly ordained. They were also able to stay after the ceremony and attend the first masses the following day. Since the number of faithful present did not diminish, next year ordinations will take place, God willing, on Friday, June 22nd, 2007.
Dear Friends and Benefactors,
Here is some news from the Seminary. Four young priests received the priestly unction from His Excellency Bishop Bernard Fellay on June 23rd. As the ordinations took place on a Friday, fifty-nine priests were able to attend the ceremony and have the joy of imposing hands on the newly ordained. They were also able to stay after the ceremony and attend the first masses the following day. Since the number of faithful present did not diminish, next year ordinations will take place, God willing, on Friday, June 22nd, 2007.
Various apostolates called the seminarians to the four corners of the United States. However, the seminarians in the Humanities and Spirituality courses remained at the Seminary during the summer, making it thus possible to preserve the community of life and prayer until the beginning of the new academic year, while also helping the Seminary priests in their various ministries in Winona, Madison and Waterloo. During the week, they have been working under Brother Marcel's direction, repairing seminarians' rooms and applying themselves to the up-keep of our various buildings, always in need of maintenance. Others have helped Brother Gerard in his famous garden. Lastly, the seminarians have assisted the priests during the three retreats preached at the Seminary: in July, one for men and one for women, and in August, one for the priests of the District.
Other professors devoted themselves to youth camps. Fr. Abbet worked together with some seminarians in a camp for 70 boys in Los Gatos, California. Fr. Gaudray, after preaching many retreats to religious sisters, will take care of the chaplaincy of a youth camp in Europe. As undoubtedly you already know, Fr. Dreher and Fr. MacPherson will leave the Seminary for other ministries in the United States. We would like to express here our gratitude for their tireless work and our regret to see them moving away so quickly. They will be replaced by Fr. Thomas Asher, who will be the new Vice-Rector, and by Fr. Markus Heggenberger.
The seminarians of the Theology and Philosophy courses will return on September 7th, and those of Spirituality and Humanities on September 30th. They will begin their new academic year with a retreat in order to prepare their souls for the graces that they will receive during the new year. The Seminary will then have 80 seminarians, including 25 new candidates. These numbers are encouraging and they are, certainly, the fruit of your prayers and sacrifices. For this year, we still have room for everyone, but if our seminarians persevere and if the vocations continue to flow, we will be facing a serious housing crisis!
At the end of the General Chapter of the Society of St. Pius X, held last July at the seminary of Econe, Bishop Fellay launched a Crusade of the Rosary, for the restoration of the Traditional Mass. The Rosary will triumph, as it triumphed in Lepanto, according to the promises of Our Lady herself at Fatima: In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.
Fr. Yves le Roux
P.S.: For this summer, we propose to your meditation a text of a Dominican monk on the spirit of childhood.
THE JOY OF LOVING GOD AS A CHILD
Rev. Fr. Mortier O.P.
O, the joy of loving God as a child, with the frankness, the simplicity, the freshness of a child!
"If you do not become like little children, said the Master, you will not enter into the kingdom of Heaven".
It is not a suggestion, but a precept. If we do not observe it on earth, Purgatory is there to reform our life and give us back this frankness, this simplicity, this freshness of a child, not with its imperfections and natural weaknesses, but in all its purity and uprightness. Purgatory rectifies all twisted ways. It restores the souls to the truth of God, by removing in them all the evil consequences of sin.
But it would have been much better if, on earth, we would have endeavored to keep on the right path, or if, having been lost by sin, we would have managed, with the grace of God, to go back to it.
The child walks right ahead. He has every confidence in his father and in his mother. He instinctively feels that his fate depends on them. Being himself weak, he rests on their knees. His whole small being lives by the attention of his parents. It could even be said that he knows it. In every need, he has the natural sense to throw himself into their arms. Even if he offends them, he counts on their love. Without reasoning it, he knows that he and they are one. This love, this confidence and this certainty are innate in the child. Instinctively, without reflection or fear, he tends his small arms towards his father and his mother. Thus we must do with God, our Father who is in Heaven. He is our Father, we are his children. We have in us, by the grace. His own nature. And for this reason we must be. for God, true children. We must seek to please Him in everything, and to have recourse to Him in all our needs, with the love of a child.
Nothing moves the heart of God more than our filial trust in Him. Before Him, whoever we are, we are always the little children whom He loves, whom He supports, whom He protects. Our strength, in this world, consists in having this conviction. O profound joy of feeling with certainty that we are the little children of God. O profound joy of saying to ourselves in every circumstance: "I have a Father in Heaven, a Father who loves me, a Father who watches over me, a Father who will never abandon me if myself I do not abandon him, a Father who follows me everywhere and who, even if I offend Him, will tend His arms towards me at my first cry of distress. As a child throws himself into his mother's arms, I throw myself also into the arms of my Father who is in Heaven, while crying to Him: Forgive me!" And this is not literature, but the truth.
O infinite joy for my heart! I have a Father in Heaven, and this Father, the Sovereign Lord of the universe, this Father. He loves me!